Niall Ferguson: war 'should be taught like a computer game'

Schoolchildren should be taught about the First World War as if it were a computer game, the historian Niall Ferguson has argued.

Prof Ferguson, the author and broadcaster who now teaches at Harvard University, said that turning the war into a "strategic game" would allow children to understand the logistics of it, while "playing to their strengths".

Claiming that this tactic would be particularly well received by boys, he argued the world of 1914 should be seen as a "multi-player game with regional powers engaging in a shift in territorial ground".

Speaking at the Hay Festival, as part of a panel on "How to Teach the Great War", Prof Ferguson claimed that playing the First World War as a game would help the conflict seem more immediate to young people.

Kate Adie, the broadcaster and historian, disagreed, insisting it would not help children learn about the human consequences, and arguing: "War is not a game." ...